The United States has announced sanctions on several Chinese biotech and surveillance firms in the latest step against Beijing over human rights abuses of Uyghurs, a major indigenous ethnic group in the country’s western Xinjiang province.
Locked Up In China: The Plight Of Xinjiang’s Muslims
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is partnering with its sister organization, Radio Free Asia, to highlight the plight of Muslims living in China’s western province of Xinjiang.
Citing their roles in the Chinese regime’s actions against Uyghurs, the U.S. Commerce Department on December 16 added China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and its 11 research institutes that focus on using biotechnology to support the Chinese military to its list of firms and institutions, restricting access to exports.
China has been under growing international criticism and hit with sanctions for detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and representatives of Xinjiang’s other indigenous, mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic groups for political reeducation in Xinjiang.
China insists such camps are “vocational education centers” aimed at helping people steer clear of terrorism.
A senior U.S. administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the U.S. Treasury Department is also set to issue penalties against several Chinese entities.
The official said that U.S. intelligence has established that China has set up a high-tech surveillance system across Xinjiang employing biometric facial recognition and collecting DNA samples from all of the region’s residents aged 12 to 65 as part of a systematic effort to suppress Uyghurs.
The announcement comes after the U.S. House of Representatives on December 14 passed a bipartisan bill to ensure imports from China’s Xinjiang region are not made with forced labor.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act passed by unanimous voice vote late on December 14, sending it to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved before getting President Joe Biden’s signature.
The White House announced last week it would stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang.”
